Editorial 29 June 2007

 

 
 

 

 

The Paucity of Mr Howard's Legacy to Science

or

"Speak to the Hand, 'Cos the Face Ain't Listening"

 

 
 

In the eleven years that John Howard has reigned as Australia's Prime Minister his effect on science and higher education has been monumental. Ministers responsible for higher education and/or science have come and gone and have demonstrated nothing so much as the actions of a ventriloquist's dummy, and none more so than the purported  intelligent and feisty Julie Bishop and her immediate predecessor, Brendan Nelson.

 

Recently David King and Sandy Thomas (Science: Vol. 316. no. 5832, pp. 1701 – 1702), Britain’s Chief Scientific Advisor and the Director of Foresight respectively wrote: “Science belongs at the heart of good government, but too often it is relegated to the political sidelines. The problem comes from both sides: scientists who do not know how to convey their expertise to a wider world and politicians who are not convinced that it is worth their while to listen.”

 

In the case of the autocratic John Howard the problem goes beyond that. Mr Howard's Coalition sees scientists and academicians as bordering on closet subversives if not worse.

 

Robert May, chief scientific adviser to the UK government 1995–2000 and president of the Royal Society 2000–2005 in commenting on the Blair government decade on British science went down the path of there's good news and there's bad news: "Tony Blair has emphasized the importance of scientific research for understanding the natural world and our place in it, and for the practical benefits it brings. And he meant it: during the early years of his office the rate of increase of the Office of Science and Technology's budget was among the highest of all government departments. They derive from the belief of Blair and his chief finance minister and imminent successor Gordon Brown that, in Blair's words, 'the science base is the absolute bedrock of our economic performance'."

 

With Australia's budget surpluses forming the "bedrock" of Mr Howard's and his treasurer, Peter Costello's annual self congratulatory posturing you might have thought that investing in Australia's intellectual capital would be a given. Nothing could be further from the case. Instead OECD statistics show us languishing toward the middle of the field often looking up toward the mean rather than down.

 

When this begins to appear to be sufficiently damning to worry Mr Howard that the voting public might be - if only slightly - perturbed, the relevant minister is sent forth to state the OECD statisticians have got it wrong and we've been sorely dealt with. The question arises of course as to who has the vested interest.

 

Professor May also decries within the UK: "the extreme growth of bureaucracy — too often masquerading as accountability. The ballooning of the civil service since 1997 means that there are now more conscientious administrators who hold meetings and send out forms to be filled in. And universities have matched or exceeded the growth in bureaucrats seen in the civil service. This growth is only partly justified by need. One issue that Brown might address is that the current number of central administrative staff is roughly equal to the number of faculty for four major UK universities".

 

Did anyone mention micromanagement John Howard style?

 

Meanwhile, while the shortage of scientists and mathematicians is the focus of governmental reports, it remains, and the lack of suitably

   Photo: Laurel Hungerford

 qualified secondary and even primary schools teachers of science and mathematics grows. And with what effect?  Mr Howard's Minister for Education, Science and Training, is detailed off to decry subversive teaching in history and claim that the cure-all for teacher shortages is to be found in performance-based pay.

 

In an odd sort of way it's reminiscent of CSIRO — with the blessing of the responsible Minister of the time — funding research into chemical defleecing because it would rid the wool growers of dependency on the shearer with his hand piece.

 

How so reminiscent?

 

As the scientific assistant to the minister was heard to say in an aside to a sceptical researcher, "The minister is well aware that it won't work, but the government hopes it'll keep the cockies happy."

 

Meanwhile, if Science's Jeffrey Mervis is to be believed the "nation-state" of California [population 36.5 million] and its Governator, Arnold Schwarzenegger, are facing "a high stakes numbers game" to produce more maths and science teachers. California has a projected need for 33,000 new math and science teachers over the next decade.

 

With the prospect of significant increases in funding, Chancellor Charles Reed heading the 23-campus California State University has promised to double its output of 750 math and science teachers by 2010.

 

As for the University of California (UC), Robert Dynes told the Governor UC will "quadruple the 200 students now graduating from its 10 research-oriented campuses with science and math teaching credentials".

 

It remains to be seen whether or not those promises will be met. For UC in particular it will require some major changes and a Science and Mathematics Initiative (SMI) program has been redesigned to meet the challenge. As Science reports: "The effort to improve STEM [science, technology, engineering, and mathematics] teaching has been on the back burner nationally for 20 years," observes Fred Eiserling, a UC Los Angeles microbiologist who heads the school's SMI program and who also serves as coordinator for all UC campuses. "At UCLA, we've built up our program with the help of outside grants. But it's never received the attention it deserves. SMI will allow each campus to ratchet up its efforts."

 

Several months back Chancellor Dynes told a California congressional science committee that as SMI ramps up, "I predict we are going to see real magic happen." 

 

Will the "magic" effect those working in the trenches to prepare more science and math teachers?

 

At the very least SMI hasn't got the sound of a minister of science, education and training claiming performance-based payments is a panacea.

 

 

Alex Reisner

The Funneled Web